The article was interesting, but is certainly biased differently than my outlook on the world is. Here's some thoughts I had: 1) I really wish they'd given so

The article was interesting, but is certainly biased differently than my outlook on the world is. Here's some thoughts I had: 1) I really wish they'd given some stats from other countries. With the pandemic raging, what are mothers of young children doing in other countries? It seems that if daycares are closing, it is a moot point at to where you have access to a daycare outside of a pandemic. (Beyond that, are their economies doing better? Is the well-being of their populace higher)? 2) "Beyond being stressful and exhausting, [covid] has forced millions of parents, mostly mothers, to make tough decisions about how much to work, if at all." To which I've got to say, "excuse me?" Watching children absolutely is work, it just doesn't pay. I wish they'd considered that angle -- what if we could pay a parent to stay home and watch their own children. [If you needed an economic justification, I've heard that economic growth tracks population growth, just delayed twenty years.] 3) They talked about a "child-care desert": "In a glaring instance of market failure, the supply of child care simply has not kept up with the demand. More than half of Americans live in a so-called child-care desert, with little or no access to quality care, according to the Center for American Progress. That means what’s available is rarely affordable. It’s not uncommon for parents of infants or toddlers to pay more than $1,000 a month in child care—equal to more than 17% of median household income." "[A preschool program in Portland] mandates better pay for child-care workers, putting them on par with teachers—a bold attempt to strike at one of the child-care deficit’s root causes." It sounds to me that we have: A - child care is too expensive for families to use and B - child care is doesn't make enough money to be viable business for the service providers This doesn't sound like a "glaring ... market failure" to me. 4) Lastly, is percent of GDP being spent a good measure for comparing countries? I can see it as a good starting point, but I don't think it is enough for a good comparison.